


Rogue Heart

by PamPanda



Category: Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Action/Adventure, Multi, One Shot Collection, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-07
Updated: 2015-07-07
Packaged: 2018-04-08 04:19:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4290594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PamPanda/pseuds/PamPanda
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is actually a small AU for if Varien was born a Rogue instead of a Mage. The actual opening for her canon story shall be posted soon, thank you for reading.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rogue Heart

A pair of eyes as deep and blue as the ocean watched from the trees, a bow ready in calloused hands as they watched another draw their own bow at a group of three unsuspecting men running a little too close to their camp. Huffing silvery white bangs from her face, the Dalish rogue smiled in a wicked way as she readied to jump to the side of her friend, yet biting her tongue to keep from laughing as one fell to the ground at the sight of his arrow. Her friend was a warrior with peach-like skin, light brown hair, and eyes that were (according to her) like aquamarine gems. He was ready, poised, and smirking the tiniest bit no one would be able to catch unless they were dumb enough to attempt to get a closer look. She relaxed her hold for only a moment until she heard one yell,

“You have no right to stop us, elf!”

Sucking on her teeth quite loudly, the female drew back her bow and shot the arrow at his feet, drawing another as she slowly stepped out into the sunlight. A more obvious, almost wicked smile, danced across her light-blue lips as the sun beamed off her tan skin and she stood beside her partner. Hearing a small snort come from him, he commented in an almost cocky fashion, “We’ll just see about that, won’t we,” Looked at her from the corner of his eye, he seemed to be fighting back a small sneer, “You’re just in time. I found these... humans lurking about. Bandits no doubt.” With the last comment he tightened his hold on his bow.

“We’re not bandits! Please don’t hurt us!” One of the humans began to cry out in fear, leaving the female unsure if she should feel sorry for him or the fact she snorted from holding back laughter.

“Wow, shems sure are pathetic,” The woman finally spoke with a cocky, youthful tone to her voice as she readied her bow, “How did they manage to drive us from home, I wonder!”

Taking another step closer, closer, the male in the middle seemed to shout something about ‘Never doin’ anything’ and ‘not knowing the forest was theirs’. The girl gave another snort, this time one far louder than the last one, but the boy gave a fierce and even angered look, “This isn’t our forest, fool... You stumbled too close to our camp. You shems are like vermin-- we can’t trust you not to make mischief... What do you say, vhenan? What shall we do with them?”

Bust thinking about how the previous statement was a little ironic, the girl’s eyes lit up as she gave a deep yet quick thought to the situation. Shaking her head, almost surprised at herself as she said, “Well, they must be out here for a reason. Let see what it may be, and if it is good enough to let them go.”

“Does it matter? If we let them live we’ll have to move camp--” He started out but was quickly shut down from how quickly she whipped her head in his direction, “Fine.”

“L-look...!” Another of the men piped up, “We didn’t come here for trouble. W-we found a cave--”

“Yes, a cave!” The one from before piped back in, “There were ruins like you’d never see, we thought there’d be...”

Treasure, is what she thought as the male beside her said it. Biting her lip as she compared them to thieves rather than bandits. Another sense of irony filling her as she hummed to herself and merely stayed on her guard. Though curious there’d possibly be ruins around these parts, one of the men slowly came over and handed her partner an artifact they found in the ruins. Her face twisted in confusion, but what caught her attention once again was hearing her partner speak the words ‘written elvish’. How did he know what it was? And why would some ruins have elvish  artifacts? Did elves even live out this far? It’s not like they knew a lot of their own history, so maybe they could have...

The first man began to state how there was more to the ruins, yet they never made it too far in. When questioned on the matter, they claimed to run into a creature with huge black eyes. The warrior elf scoffed at the idea of a demon, but the rogue was left with a small chill up her spine. When asked where the cave was, the human told them it was more to the west, a cave inside a huge rock face that’d be impossible to miss. Sighing out, the male looked to the girl once again and asked, “Well? Should we trust them? Let them go?”

“Well...” The female said as she slowly lowered her bow, flicking a hip off to the side she bucked in the direction of the males as she commenting calmly, “They’re just a bunch of stupid shems. No use getting our tails in trouble for killin’ them. Let’em go for now.”

“You heard the lady,” The warrior elf spoke in a fiercer tone as he kept his bow drawn at the human men, “Run along, and don’t even think of coming back until we Dalish have moved camp!”

The human men did not hesitate to run along, thankful for the kindness and mercy shown upon them by the female elf. Placing her bow and arrows back into the holster on her back, she felt like a hole was being burned into her skin, and looking at her friend she flinched as he stared at her. Huffing and placing her hands on her hips, standing fully erect and even frowning, “What? Don’t look at me like that!”

“Varien, you’re too soft on those shemlans, sometimes.” The male chuckled as he put his own weapons away, seeming to relax as the distance between them and the humans grew.

“Shut it, Tamlen. I am not!” Varien hissed out and lightly punched at his arm, though it was lazy and nothing but her playing around, so Tamlen could barely register she even came into contact with him.

Tamlen’s aqua colored eyes looked back down at the artifact, holding it up for them both to look at in the sun light and humming in a curious tone, “I wonder... Shall we go check out these ruins? I am a little curious now.”

“You read my mind,” The female chimed in as she slowly took the stone from his hands, examining it closely and raising a brow as her eyes caught the tiniest little details etched into it, “But shouldn’t we inform the Keeper, vhenan?”

“I’m sure she’ll be interested in the carvings, but I just want to check it out before we get too excited... Besides, we’re already here. Now they said it was to the west...”

Already turning on his heels, Varien jumped a bit and soon rushed by his side, slipping her hand into his in a playful and also worried manner. The idea of exploring these ruins excited the young rogue, yet it left her with a frightened feeling for reasons even she could not understand. The paths were a little quieter lately, probably because they had managed to avoid most of the wildlife in the area. But the farther the two grew from their camp, the more likely they’d hear the howling of a wolf in the distance, as well as a sudden pair of claws nearly scratching at their throats. While Varien wasn’t the best archer in the world, she was decent enough not to hit Tamlen when he’d draw his sword and helped to slay the large beasts. But the looks he’d throw her from over his shoulder left her more than a little bashful and embarrassed for almost hitting him a few times... Though he always seemed more than eager to return the favor when it was she in the place of nearly being hit by one of his arrows. No harm was ever done, not like when they’d practice at a younger age and would panic when an arrow was lodged into the other’s arm or shoulder.

When she was able to return to holding his hand in hers, they lightly swung their arms about as Varien hummed quiet Elvish songs to try to ease the strange aura in the air. As they drew closer and closer to the cave, it became harder to ease the tension, especially when it was this odd and twisted sense of dread filling the air. Finally finding the entrance of the cave, to the female it looked ominous and the air around it was riddled with death. While it may have been ruins, maybe even a tomb, it was so sinister that she wasn’t sure what to make of it.

“Well, here we are. Though, this place looks oddly human. I can’t say I recall ever seen this place before, have you?” Tamlen spoke up as he observed the entrance of the cave, looking around the fallen rocks and structure that riddled the ground.

“I don’t believe I’ve seen it when I’ve went hunting,” Varien commented quietly as she lightly gripped his hand, trying to ignore the sense of doom that was filling her guts, “Come on! Let’s go.”

“Just what I was thinking. We’ll be clan heroes!” Laughing aloud in a brave, adventurous tone as his hand slowly slipped out of hers and they lightly began to tread into the cave.

Rolling her shoulders as her semi-barefeet came into contact with the cold rocks, Varien observed her surroundings and saw that a few traps were scattered across the ruins. Whoever resided here before certainly didn’t want anyone to enter, let alone pick locks of old chests and steal whatever treasures were inside. Eyes brightening as she found a pair of old dalish gloves, still in great condition, Varien carefully removed the pair she was currently wearing -minding the bandages on her hands- and slipped the other pair on. They were certainly heavier, but that also meant they probably gave her better armor than the other pair did.

Continuing to travel around the ruins with Tamlen, ever so often she’d hear the strange sound of something... crawling around above them. Before she knew it, the source of the sound was right in front of them. Giant spiders dropped from the ceiling in front of the pair, shooting webs at them and nearly piercing their faces with their giant fangs. Varien drawing her daggers, and Tamlen his sword, they began fighting off the monstrous creatures. All but one began to drop like the bugs they were, but the last one was already trying to overwhelm the Dalish girl. Screaming and fighting back against it, Varien stabbed the creature in the eyes and gave a hard kick to it’s center to force it off her small frame. The creature hissed and cried in pain, though it’s out suffering was soon over when Tamlen gave the final blow to it.

Lifting herself from the ground, all dirty and bloody, Varien attempted to catch her breath and moved her silver locks from in front of her face. Rushing over to Tamlen, who was basically in the same condition as herself, she held onto his hands when he seemed to shudder and looked as if he was trying to get his thoughts in order. “This place makes me nervous.” He admitted to her as he stared down at her hands that held his in a loose, gentle manner, and slowly held hers in return.

“You know we can talk if it will help you calm down.” Speaking in a quiet tone again, this seemed to be the more natural voice of hers, not the loud and cocky tone she always used around everyone and everything else, “We can take a break, lets not push it.”

“I suppose... hey, wait,” Looking her in the face, the male raised a brow at her with his head slightly cocked to the side, “Weren’t you supposed to be assisting Master Varathorn today? How’d you end up coming with me?”

“I’m being punished, duh,” Switching to a sarcastic voice for a moment, Varien giggled at the hurt expression he gave her as she pulled her hands away and wrapped them around his torso, “Abelas, vhenan. I was kidding, I wanted to be with you, of course!”

“You’re so cruel, Var.” He joked in a over-dramatic sad voice, but only laughed as he calmed back down, wrapping his arms around her in return and resting his forehead on her shoulder, “I thought that was the case,  I’m glad... But, we still have a ways to go, let's keep looking, yeah?”

Nodding against him, the two separated and continued their search through the temple. Killing anymore spiders that tried to make them their next dinner, and becoming frustrated when there were even doors Varien couldn’t pick the locks to.  This place was so odd, the further in they traveled this became clear to Varien, there was a sinister aura to the air, and the next thing they stumbled upon only anchored the feeling in her.

Cringing and nearly recoiling in fright, Varien nearly held back a scream when tripping over a random corpse on the ground. Scrambling back to her feet, she never expected to find anything dead outside of a sarcophagus in these ruins. Brushing the scattered dust and webs off her frame, now Tamlen was showing his own worry for this place. Though it went as quickly as it came when he found a statue, he seemed to recognize it as an Elvhen god of sorts, but Varien couldn’t make anything out on the statue. Time and ruin had taken their toll so even her sharp eyes couldn’t make out many things.

As she stared at the statue, trying to make out any details on it that he spotted, she listened to him explain what he knew of the God. He was Falon’din, “Friend of the Dead”, he used to guide the spirits of the Ancient ones through the beyond. Strange that’d he be in ruins that resembled that of human structure, maybe both their species co-existed here. Though she didn’t mean to, Varien started becoming curious of one thing.

“Tamlen,” She cut him off as she looked back at the male who was nearly going off on a small rambling session, “Why did you want to come down here anyway?”

“Oh, well. I was thinking if we found something of use to the clan down here, then the Keeper would forgive me for... you know.” His laugh was nervous and he lightly scratched his cheek, leaving Varien with a flushed face and a nervous laugh of her own.

“Th-thanks for covering for me in our brawl, by the way. I never expected...”

“Hey, I’d do anything for you, you know that.” Tamlen then cut her off, offering a smile that left her feeling even more flushed and making her have to look away so not to become too distracted.

Perfect timing... The corpses that were dead on the ground suddenly began to rise when she took a step closer to the door the statue was across from. Feeling a violent shiver go up her spine, she drew her weapons and they trembled in her hands from not only the fear, but adrenaline that began to pump through her veins. The corpses went down easily, but she was not going to calm down anytime soon. It felt and sounded like someone was whispering in her ears, like they were trying to touch her through a thin piece of fabric.

Tamlen’s comment about the place being haunted only worsened the feeling, making her scream to herself and shake her head, “B-but how did those corpses start walking?! Haunted or not, is this forbidden magic?”

“It could be, whatever happened here must have be... significant, especially since none of these bodies were buried. I think one of the elders mentioned something about a veil keeping our world separated from the Beyond. Where it is thin, spirits who want to enter our world slip through and possess things like corpses...” Beginning to explain what he learned, as always, Tamlen slowly stopped when he saw just how frightened the girl was. “I’m sorry, lets just move on.”

Nodding in agreement, surprises upon surprises jumped out at the two, screaming and coughing as a trap was activated and the door swung open. A horrid, mutated creature that almost resembled a bear started charging at them, almost knocking them to the ground as the fight began.

She couldn’t see, couldn’t breathe. Her lungs felt like they were burning and the fog and tears clouded her eyes to keep her from seeing straight. The cuts and new gashes on her body burned in the gas, increasing the panic in her heart and forcing her to run in whatever direction she was facing. She did make it inside the room, and the gas was beginning to clear. Varien caught another glance at the creature that was now attacking her beloved, and she pulled out her bow as fast as she could. Closing one eye, she carefully began to aim for the area where it’s spiked neck and head met. Releasing the arrow, it was a one shot kill, and the creature stood up and gave a mighty roar that shook her to the core as it fell to the ground in defeat.

“What... what was that thing?” Tamlen’s own fright was showing as he stood from the ground, more blood joining the dried up patches from earlier and he limped toward the female.

Varien grabbed for the male, holding him up with whatever strength she had to keep him off the ground. He couldn’t deny the fear in her eyes as his own refocused and he could stand on his own. Reaching out for her trembling hands, he brushed his fingers over hers, beckoning her almost to grab onto his own.

Holding the girl’s gloved and bandaged hands, rubbing his fingers over the tips of her own, Tamlen smiled when she seemed to finally began to calm down. Even wiping away a few of the tears that spilled down her face and kissing her forehead, until something else caught his eye.

A large mirror sat on the top of a small elevation of stairs, it didn't seem to actually reflect anything. Tamlen seemed almost... excited and enchanted as he stared at it. "Wow," He began, "It's beautiful, isn't it? I am surprised it isn't broken like everything else, especially with that bear that was lumbering around in here."

"You think the Keeper will be able to translate these markings?" Varien asked as she gripped Tamlen's hand even tighter the longer she stared at the mirror.

"I'm sure she would--- Hey did you see that? Something in it moved!" Trying to draw closer to it, Tamlen was halted as Varien gripped his hand tightly, only seeing her shake her head in fright when he pulled away from her, "Can you feel that? I think it knows we're here. I just need a closer look."

She wanted to beg him not to go any further, but he was stubborn so she stayed close behind him. There was a faint whispering in her ears as he touched the mirror. It left her shaking, a Dalish hunter knows no fear... That didn't apply to her in this moment. He was describing what he saw, underground cities, strange creatures, and a deep blackness. Then everything just suddenly became wrong. The mirror appeared to be rippling and pulsating, and all that filled her ears were the dark whispers and Tamlen's screaming, "Help-- I can't look away---!!"

Right as she was about to scream for him, to grab him and yank away from the cursed object, a giant pulse, almost like an explosion, sent her flying back and bashing her head to the ground.

Darkness.

There was nothing but darkness. When her eyes opened they were unfocused, swimming in her skull, and she could barely make out the image of a man above her. His words echoing in her ears and not registering until everything started to fade from her once again.

_"I'm sorry. I am so sorry..."_


End file.
